Tag Archives: Mighty Nizz

Skook WiP #102

Posted on by

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest!

I’ve been feeling kinda brain dead the last few mornings. I get up, pour myself a mug of coffee and stagger down the hall to my studio. I sit at my computer and stare at the screen for a bit. Spending November writing on Daughter of Spiders was great for building the habit of writing each day. Writing instead of scrolling my social media feeds. A bunch of bad writing at least feels like I’ve made an effort. Social media scrolling can be fun and I enjoy snarking with folks but I rarely feel like I’ve accomplished anything.

I’ve gotten a bit stalled on the actual story of Daughter so I’ve been spending some time writing background i.e. world building. How much of it will end up in the story? I’ll know when I write more of the story I guess.

This morning I’m writing to y’all.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF features a meeting on the road, travelers exchanging stories and giving directions.

This design can be found:
On a mug in my Zazzle store
On a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store

Mighty Nizz

The last page of the first Mighty Nizz comic posted on Wednesday. Below is what the art looked like when I scanned it into Photoshop. Go here to see what the final art looks like.

I’m currently inking the next Nizz story. It’s eighteen pages. I work on art in the evenings after work and as I have time on the days that the post office isn’t using my body to shlep around mail. I’m expecting to be able to post the first page on February 1st. I prefer to have the whole story finished before I show off any of it.

Thank you for reading. The nights are getting longer. Stay warm. Have some hot chocolate. Or eggnog. Toast to the good days and laugh at the bad.

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #101

Posted on by

Welcome back!

These Days

It’s dark. Dark when I’m writing this. Dark when I go to work at USPS. Getting dark again when I finish my deliveries. We even had some dustings of snow. I suspect that it’s winter.

It’s the 2nd of December. I kinda sorta participated in National Novel Writing Month in November by expanding Daughter of Spiders. When I first thought of adding to Daughter  I’d planned to just be making the original 2013 posts a bit longer and more detailed. They were all very short – hints at stories rather than stories themselves. Once I started writing? I found myself turning those short memoir excerpts into complete chapters. No, I didn’t write 50,000 words. I didn’t expect to. I haven’t added up what I did write. I’d rather not know just yet. I did find that, if I continue expanding each post in the same way, I’ll probably write at least 400,00 words. That likely means that my intention of posting a new version of Daughter, complete with new illustrations, in 2025 is probably optimistic.

In order to make time to write I took myself off all my social media. I’m only on a few platforms – Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. Staying off Twitter was easy. I haven’t posted anything myself in years. I get links to tweets emailed to me by Twitter in hopes of getting me to come to the site. Last month I just deleted the emails without opening them. Tumblr and Facebook took a little more effort to ignore. I see a lot of artwork that I like and am inspired by on Tumblr. I like wishing people happy birthday and snarking on folks’ posts on Facebook. I used to wake up by drinking coffee and scrolling my feeds. In November I drank coffee and wrote. By the time I had to make breakfast and get in my uniform I … had feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment from … well … accomplishing something. Having accomplished something at day’s beginning makes spending 9+ hours delivering marketing and propaganda (and parcels) a lot easier. So, while I’m not committing to a strict fast of social media, I am going to maintain the habit of just writing in the mornings.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF features Medusa tending to some of her permanent guests. I like Medusa. She’s a sympathetic monster, one of many of the victims of the Greek gods.

This design can be found –
On a mug in my Zazzle store
On a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store

Mighty Nizz

Below is the scan of the physical art for the 9th page of the first Mighty Nizz comic. The final version of the page can be read at the site.

I’ve finished the pencils for the next Mighty Nizz story. Inking, shading and coloring will take a while but they are in progress. I prefer to have a whole story finished before posting the first page. That’s likely to be sometime in January or February. I’ll keep you updated.

‘Tis the Season

Christmas is coming up. If you know someone that you think would like my illustrations on schtuff, now is the time to order that schtuff. Heck, if you’d like a present for yourself, go for it! The sooner the better. Give the folks at Zazzle or Redbubble time to make it and send it.

I’ll see you next week.

Take care. Take flight!

Skook WiP #100

Posted on by

Greetings!

It’s the day after Thanksgiving. Hopefully you celebrated like a human instead of a Puritan. Those guys were jerks.

I am celebrating the 100th issue of the Skook Works in Progress Newsletter by mentioning that this is the 100th issue of the newsletter and otherwise moving on. Yay!

For NaNoWriMo I am expanding the text of Daughter of Spiders. New illustrations will get done as time permits. (The first time took almost two years.)

Otherwise –

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF features a collection of dangerous women. Dangerous women are good. Don’t let sad men tell you otherwise.

This design can be found on:
A mug in my Zazzle store
A variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Also –

This second process GIF is of another dangerous woman. I’d originally planned this image as another mug design but once I started rendering her a full body portrayal seemed like a better direction.

You can find her on schtuff in the Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

Page eight of the first Mighty Nizz story can be seen at MightyNizz.com. This is a scan of the physical art. The final (cleaned up) color version is at the site.
Until next time
Jump
Climb
and ambush the creatures who threaten to do you harm.
Hug and cuddle those who just want to be good company.

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #99

Posted on by

November 18th. I hope you are well. Well groomed, well fed, and well thought of.

I’m working at updating and expanding Daughter of Spiders for NaNoWriMo. It’s taking the majority of my words this month.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF is of an illustration of the sort of tree you want to have around if you want to read outside on a dark night.

This design can be found on:
A mug in my Zazzle store
All sorts of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

The seventh page of the first Mighty Nizz story can be read now. A scan of the original art is below. The colored version is at MightyNizz.com.

Thanksgiving is next week. Be the best company you can. Eat as much as makes you happy. Reject the Puritan strain that infects American Culture. Those guys were anti-fun.

See you on the day after!

Skook WiP #98

Posted on by

It’s 11/11/22. It’s the 11th day of the 11th month. The war to end all wars ended today back in 1918.

Yeah. No comment.

I’m off social media and putting my best efforts into updating Daughter of Spiders as my project for NaNoWriMo. Any internet use has to be for historical research for the story. No current news. No gossip. No reviews of old b-movies.

Mugshots

This month’s process GIF features a girl and her dragon. Or perhaps a dragon and her girl. Or maybe the tragic death of a lollypop. It’s all a matter of perspective.

It’s available as:
A mug in my Zazzle store
A lot of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

The latest page of the first Mighty Nizz story is up. The scan of the original art is below. The final colored version can be seen at MightyNizz.com.

Versus

Back in October I was commissioned to do a portrait of someone, a friend of a friend. The initial suggestion was to portray the fellow taking out a giant bug.
The commissioner also thought it might be fun to portray his friend as Katsuki Bakugo (a character from the anime My Hero Academia) fighting Meruem (a character from the anime Hunter x Hunter).
My client gave me the choice of depicting either scenario. I sent him sketches for both and asked him to choose his favorite. He went with the anime version.
I worked up pencils for the portrait. I’m not familiar with either of the animes from which these characters originate so I had to do some research to get their details right. I think I did fairly well.

Once I got approval on the pencils I moved on to inks and then spot blacks and shading.
Below is the final version. I had to be a little more careful with this project than with illustrations that are intended for print. I can fix errors on those pieces digitally. The physical art for this one went to the client so it had to be as clean and mistake free as possible.
That’s it for this week.

Take care. Take charge. Take flight.

See you next Friday!

Skook WiP #97

Posted on by

How are you doing? Are you getting enough to eat? Getting enough rest? Did you vote?

It’s the fourth day of November. That means I’m four days into expanding Briar Rose Taylor’s memoirs. I’m not expecting to get the 50,000 words written necessary to turn Daughter of Spiders into a novel. I’m using National Novel Writing Month as a prompt to get work done now that otherwise I’d do … someday. I’m putting in at least an hour first thing in the morning before breakfast, chores and then doing time at USPS. In the evenings I’m having dinner, hanging out with Sarah and illustrating the next Mighty Nizz story. I’m taking a break from social media. I’m writing the bulk of all of November’s newsletters in October and doing quick additions and edits before they actually post.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF features a space station with infinite living space. Infinite corridors anyway. For infinite running from infinitely hungry aliens.

This design is available on:
A mug at my Zazzle store
All kinds of schtuff at my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

The latest page of the first Mighty Nizz story is live at MightyNizz.com. A scan of the physical art is below. The final, color version of this page can be seen at the website.

A New Mouse

Part of the advantage of print on demand is that I can change the designs if I think of ways to improve them and I’m not stuck with a bunch of stock I don’t want to sell. I recently started wearing a t-shirt with the image below emblazoned on it. At the end of the first day I thought of a way to improve the design.
Below is the new version. It’s available on all sorts of stuff in my Redbubble store. Both the original (because it looks better on some products than the update) and the new version are available in my Zazzle store.
Have a great week!

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #96

Posted on by

Greetings and salutations!

This issue and, most likely, November’s newsletters, will be shorter on personal news than previous issues. In order to give myself time for NaNoWriMo in November I’m writing at least the basics of the letters in October. Given that I have no powers of prognostication I’ll be leaving off the “These Days” sections. Let’s just pretend that I’m having fun delivering mail and getting lots of writing done in my off hours.

Mugshots

This month’s process GIF is … hmmm. One of those images that came to me without any explanation. I’m sure there’s a story to be told here but I’ll leave it you to start it.
This design can be found on:
A mug in my Zazzle store
A variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

Below is the scan of the latest page of the first Mighty Nizz story. The finished color page can be found here.

Sketches

Practice, practice.

Daughter of Spiders

I’ll be setting up a gallery (or galleries) for the illustrations featured in this project. The text will be going away on November 1st. If you’d like to read it before then I recommend starting here.

I hope your week goes smoothly and is dotted with plenty of joyful moments.

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #95

Posted on by

Yesterday was Thursday. That means today is …
Newsletter Day!

These Days …

Last week we went to Mississippi. I’m supposed to schedule my vacations at the beginning of each year. That week wasn’t scheduled. We had friends who decided to get married after all my vacation time had been nailed down. All the slots last week were already taken. Fortunately I was able to get one of the other carriers to give up her vacation time so I could use it.

Monday and Friday were both spent traveling. Monday involved getting to the airport. Going through security. Waiting around. Sitting on a cramped plane. Trekking across the next airport from our arrival gate to our next departure gate. More sitting on another, smaller cramped plane. Getting a rental car. Getting to the hotel. Friday was basically the reverse. The folks who work at the airport and on the planes were generally kind, friendly and helpful. The people who run the airline industry and profit from it are horrible monsters who deserve nothing but contempt. I’d rant more but I’ve already given them two days of my life.

Our time in Mississippi, Tuesday to Thursday, was quite pleasant. We’ve known the bride for decades, me since high school, Sarah since the beginning of this century. We met the groom on Tuesday and, thankfully, liked him and enjoyed his company quite a lot. We’ve been considering moving to Mississippi when I retire (living in Seattle gets more cost prohibitive every year) so we were also doing a little exploring when we weren’t hanging out with our friends.

The wedding on Wednesday evening was small. I performed the ceremony. The bride and groom wrote their own vows. They’d intended to have it outdoors in their backyard (they have five acres) but, after days of sunshine, a storm had rolled in, so we did it in their living room.

Thursday Sarah and I did some more exploring in the morning and hung out with our friends in the afternoon. We talked. We cooked. We listened to old records. We ate. It was very good.

This week has been one of my scheduled vacations. As is traditional, we haven’t gone anywhere. We just hang out, I do some art and spread out the chores that I would normally be trying to stuff into my evenings and single days off.

Process Writing

David Mann has written a process post about the comic I illustrated. Follow the link to read all about it.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF is of a trio of faces. Mugs for mugs. Or whatever.
Available on:
A mug in my Zazzle store
A variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

The third page of the first Mighty Nizz comic is live at her website. Below is the scan of the original art. Follow the link to see the page in color.

Sketches

I do a lot of sketches. Most of them are a patchwork of faces and partial figures and random things. This week I’ve been doing some sketches with the idea of depicting full figures in relation to each other. I liked the way these turned out so I’m sharing them here.
NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month. I usually forget about it until I see someone posting about it early in November. Life is too busy for me to play catch up so, at that point, I figure it’s too late for me to participate. “Maybe next year,” I tell myself.

This year, on October 15th, Facebook tossed one of those historic “Maybe next year” posts into my reminders feed. That’s an early enough notice for me to think about whether I could join in with any success. NaNoWriMo considers a novel to be about 50,000 words. 50,000 words divided by 30 days is about 1700 words a day. A double spaced manuscript is about 250-300 words a page so I’d need to average about five and a half pages a day.

Given the other things I am responsible for and want to accomplish, I don’t think I could succeed at writing a novel.

Except.

I can use NaNoWriMo as a prompt to make progress on updating one of my earlier projects.

Daughter of Spiders is an illustration/writing project that I posted here daily in 2013. Back in (I think) 2010 I’d had the idea that it would be fun to do a portrait of every version of the Frankenstein Monster. I thought it would give me subject matter to post here. Then I thought of adding portraits of monsters/creatures that were take offs of the Monster, mostly from B-movies. And then I thought it would be fun to do portraits of other monsters from B-movies. And, for me, every picture tells a story, I started thinking of a story that would connect all those portraits. And that led me to invent some characters and scenarios and an overarching mythology to tie things together. It became something very large, featuring illustrations of beings inspired by pulp fiction, horror movies, fairy tales and … stuff.

Originally I planned to start posting in 2011. As the project got more complicated I pushed the start date to 2012. I finally started posting on January 1st, 2013. Each illustration was accompanied by a short “excerpt” from Briar Rose Taylor’s memoirs.

Every once in a while I’ve thought about expanding those excerpts and doing new illustrations. This last Wednesday I read through the whole project. For a moment I thought about trying to put out a new version starting in 2023 – ten years since the first version was posted! Cool!

Dumb. 2023 is set aside for the Mighty Nizz.

But I did decide that I will do a revision and expansion. At the moment I’m thinking I could be ready to post the new version in 2024 but I’ll be okay if I can’t do it until 2025.

Skookworks.com is already a massive website. Rather than create 365 new posts I’ll be pulling the original posts, expanding them and reposting them with new illustrations in 2024 (or 2025). If you’ve never read the original series you have until November 1st to do so. Start here. Click on “next” at the top right of the post to go to the next installment.

And that’s it for this week.

May the next seven days treat you well!

Skook WiP #94

Posted on by

Greetings from Sunday past!

We’re going to Mississippi for a wedding. Of course, by the time you read this we’ll be on our way back from that wedding. No doubt our housemate will have taken advantage of our absence to throw wild parties and not do the dishes for days at a time.

Given that I haven’t lived this week yet I don’t have much to write about so I’ll keep it short.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF is of a few young dudes hanging out and doing young dude stuff.

This design can be found on
A mug in my Zazzle store.
All sorts of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

The second page of the first Mighty Nizz story should be available to read at the Mighty Nizz website. If not I’ll fix that tomorrow.

Below is what that page looked like when I scanned it into my computer. For the colored version, follow the link above.
I hope your week was a good one! Thank you for reading.

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #83

Posted on by

TGIF! (Because saying Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster It’s Friday takes too long and no one would recognize the abbreviation.)

Has your week been fantastic? If your state votes by mail or allows early voting I hope you’ve taken advantage of that and cast your ballot. Otherwise, I hope your trip to the polls is an easy one.

These Days –

I have been on vacation all this week. We tend to stay around home for vacations. Travel is fun and educational but it’s also tiring and a bit stressful. Right now I’m a big fan of as little stress as possible.

I got and finished a commission for a three page black and white comic. It’s the first comic I’ve finished in … years. David Mann wrote it, I did everything else. David had put out a call for an artist in his newsletter. I offered up my website and my Redbubble design page as my portfolio and got the job. He posted it to his Tumblr and Twitter accounts almost immediately after I sent him the finished pages so I’m posting those here. I’m leaving it to him to write a process post.

On Sunday I attended a figure drawing class. Live figure drawing has been a good way for me to sharpen my observation skills. It’s easy to get in the habit of drawing things the way I think they look rather than how they are actually constructed. My first figure drawing classes, many years ago, helped my illustration skills improve immensely. Since then I’ve taken classes or dropped in on open drawing sessions when I’ve started to feel like I need a jump start on my skills. It was the first of what will be six in person sessions. The in person part was important both for me and for the teacher. For me, drawing in person gives me the ability to adjust my position and move around so I can better understand how to draw the model. Drawing from photos is helpful but you can’t change the angle if you want to see something better. The teacher was excited because we were in a new building and this was the first in person adult class that she had taught in two years.

The rest of my time has been spent catching up on chores and attending to medical things. I’ve had check ups on how my eyes are healing (and got a prescription for distance glasses), teeth cleanings and the last of my physical therapy sessions for my knee. As these physical issues have gotten handled I’m starting to think of getting out of the house more. I’ll be testing my new night vision for the first time today. Most nights we’re in bed around seven. The sun is still up. Tonight we might be out after dark. I’ll be driving familiar roads so I don’t expect to have any difficulty but this will a new experience.

Mugshots

This week’s image was suggested partly by one of my nephews. He asked me to draw a zombie T-Rex. I wanted a design that would fit on a mug so I paired the undead dinosaur with a robot version.

This design can be found on a mug in my Zazzle store
and a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Beware the Nizz

I was filing the stacks of art that have grown around my drawing space and I came across an unfinished illustration of the Mighty Nizz staring down a wild pig. I inked it up and colored it and it can be found in my stores. I may still make a process GIF of this one but, for now, I’m just showing the black and white on paper version …

And the final color image.

It’s apparently hot all over the country this week. I hope you manage to stay cool.
Thank you for reading.
See you in seven!